Profile

I design websites and graphics and build websites using HTML and CSS. I also run a small web hosting company, so I am the tech support contact person for any website or email related issues my clients have.

My office is one of the rooms in my house, and I have a large desk with a big 22" monitor. I also have a couch in here, a big bookshelf with my technical manuals and most of my collection of fiction and nonfiction books, and an area with a printer and office supplies.

This room has a double sliding glass door that overlooks our back deck, so I can look outside and see trees whenever I'm feeling stressed or just need a break. This room has no interior door, since the floor plan of our downstairs is very open, so I have sheer curtains that I can draw closed if I need to be left alone.

There is a lot of color in here: my office chair and couch are both cherry red, and I have a bright blue pillow as a back support. The curtains that hang over the sliding glass doors are multicolored, and my sheer curtains are lime green.

Most of the people I work with are small business owners like myself. I work with bloggers, professional travelers, business coaches, motivational speakers, virtual assistants, and many different kinds of entrepreneurs. My clients are from the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

I get up in the morning at 7am and get my oldest two kids on the bus; this year, they are trying out our local public school. So far, they are both loving it. Once they're out the door, I stay up and use the first couple of hours in the day to meditate and find my peace before all the hectic stuff starts to happen. I don't always succeed at having my quiet time, however, because the baby doesn't always sleep until 9am, and my four-year-old sometimes wakes up when the older two do. I try to let my husband sleep in the morning, because he's the one taking care of the kids while I work throughout the day.

The only other 'typical' part of my day is at night after the kids are in their beds; from morning until late evening, my schedule runs through any number of time frames. If I have a client that has a hard deadline, I focus on that - but I build in time to stop working and be with my kids and my husband, and to take breaks just for myself as well. I have a real tendency to overwork myself without realizing I've done it, so I have had to remain very conscious about what I am expecting of myself and what actually needs to be done.

My total working hours each day are around eight or more, but I also have four hour days and twelve hour days.

I have to be good with color and typography, and with the way things balance and feel. I also need to be able to intuit what my clients really need AND want - and to do that, I need to be very good at communicating with them. I need to ask the right kinds of questions and try to understand their answers both as a potential customer of theirs and as their designer. If I promote myself as a person who can make my clients awesome, I need to understand what 'awesome' means in the context of their business, not just in a general sense.
I need confidence in my design abilities and my experience, but I also need to remain open to learning new things and to admitting any mistakes when I make them. I need to be strong and transparent at the same time, so that my clients understand that I am a real person, but that I am also always doing my best for them.

My schedule is generally Monday through Friday, with occasional weekends. I take national holidays off as well. My hourly schedule is extremely flexible, and I might work in the morning, skip the afternoon, and work several hours after the kids are sleeping before I go to bed myself.My schedule is generally Monday through Friday, with occasional weekends. I take national holidays off as well. My hourly schedule is extremely flexible, and I might work in the morning, skip the afternoon, and work several hours after the kids are sleeping before I go to bed myself.

Occasionally I have traveled locally to meet potential clients, but other than that I don't travel for my job.

I love that I am good at my job. I love the fact that I can be creative and must stretch that creativity to meet the needs of my clients.

I don't like that sometimes, I am working instead of reading a good book; or working instead of sitting on my porch relaxing with my family; or not working on creative projects of my own because working has sapped all my creativity for the day.

I am inspired by the goodness that I see in people. Their honesty and struggles only bring out their inner light.
I am inspired by my kids, who always love me no matter what - whether I'm unshowered, tired, feeling like a failure, or just having a bad day.
I am inspired by my husband, who is the hardest working person I know, and who loves me better than I love myself.

My biggest influence is my oldest son, Joey. I took my older three kids and myself out of a very bad relationship several years ago, because he was being hurt. Since that time, my intention and resolve to be the best mother, parent, and person I could possibly be has increased a hundred times more than it was when I first became a parent.
All of my children inspire me to be better and stronger than I am every day. I would not be the person I am today if it weren't for them.

My best friend told me, several years ago, that I needed to stop giving away my power to others. It took me some time to understand what she meant, and how to put that into practice in my life. The realization that I am the only one in charge of me and my decisions, and that I have the power to make things happen if I choose to, has been the biggest epiphany of my life so far.

Oh my goodness, I've gotten so much bad advice I don't even know where to start. Probably some of the worst advice I've ever gotten was to pretend something never happened in the name of peace. Forgiveness is one thing, but denial is entirely different, and a very bad idea.

Don't let anyone take away your personal power - but learn to be compassionate and trusting in the name of love. If you can live within this paradox, you will be in a place where you can love and thrive, and have a well of personal strength to draw from when times get hard, like they always do.

I would have started ramping up my business before March this year if I had known that within a few months, it would take off like it has. I would have believed in my ability to do this sooner. I would also have put my health and personal wellbeing first in several situations where I ended up overworking myself and jeopardizing weeks of scheduled projects.

I knit and sit outside and dream; or I sit by the window and dream, when the weather is too cold or wet or nasty to be outside. I imagine fantastic stories to write, and sometimes I start writing them.

I am passionate about reading, about writing, and about creativity. I am passionate about learning new things and going to bed knowing something that I didn't know when I woke up. I am passionate about people - loving them, nurturing them, and helping them be awesome at who they are and what they do.

I am also passionate about good strong coffee, expensive dark chocolate, and warm socks. I am passionate about my marriage and my relationship with the incredible man I married. I am passionate about my children growing up into strong, wise, creative, whipsmart people who are also funny and clever.

This has been so difficult for me, finding the best way to integrate my family and my work! I have to say that I am still learning how to do this well. I have two very young children, four and 9 months, and I do my absolute best to be there for them throughout the day. I read to my four year old and cuddle the baby and we laugh together and goof off. I teach my four-year-old at home, so sometimes we sit and do worksheets or practice letters or shapes when I'm on a break from work.

My older two kids are in public school right now because this is the year I launched my business into being a full-time endeavor, and I knew I would not have time to homeschool them and give my work what it needed without becoming completely burned out. So, even though it breaks my heart not to be teaching them this year, I know I made the right decision for their education and for my own ability to be a good mother. I help them with their homework every evening, so at least I don't feel like I'm not involved in their learning.

Honestly, one of the hardest things for me to figure out has been how not to neglect my HUSBAND. It's so easy to take him for granted because he is so supportive of me; I'm doing what I love, but it's hard to keep loving it when you are worrying you're letting down the people that you love. My biggest challenge has been to honor his support by giving him as much of my time as I can.

Fortitude and a huge ability to trust. I would never have gotten to this point in my life, where I am successful, happy, and able to give my family what they need, without fortitude and trust.

Fortitude in the face of very bad odds, and trust in the face of a great many disappointments and betrayals.

Seven years ago, I started fiddling around with personal web pages - they looked awful (every page had a different background! And a different font! And a different font COLOR!), but that was the basis for the absorbing obsession I currently have with websites, code, and design. All the pieces of the web are inherently fascinating to me. I don't think I could be happy in a job where I didn't put something on the internet that I had created myself.

I have overcome the obvious challenge of not having a college education to do what I do - I learned everything I know from the bookstore, the library, and the vast resources of the internet and the people I met along the way who knew things I wanted to know.  I have overcome the mental and spiritual challenge of pushing myself hard enough to believe in my ability to do what I wanted and needed to do - to provide for myself and my family, and to be financially successful.